Trixon is keeping the Peace Manhattan alive!

[Bruce (the K)]

Wow. Has it really been 5 years since I visited this site? In my defense, I did switch from drums to rhythm guitar in my main band around that time. However, I continued to play drums for another band up until last year so I really don't have any excuse.

I just wanted to let everybody know that I was idly Googling 'cocktail drum,' as you do, and I came upon a website for Trixon drums. They're a German company, famous for those Salvador Dali-like drumsets with the bass drum that looks like it melted. Anyway, they now have an American website (https://trixondrumsusa.com/) where they mention cocktail kits so I had to check it out. At first all I saw was Yamaha Club Jordan clones that were definitely not German-made (judging by the $439 price tag). As I scrolled through, I suddenly came upon the Trixon Vertikalen (vertical) cocktail kit. As a former owner, I recognized this immediately as my old, trusty Peace Manhattan cocktail kit. There had been some minor tweaks to the clamps and it now sports a Trixon logo but it's definitely the old Manhattan kit.

I was a huge fan of the Peace Manhattan for its full-size snare and minimalist layout. Although I sold mine, I made my own near-copy (with a few tweaks of my own) that I still play to this day. Because of this, it did my heart good to see that Trixon is keeping the design alive. They're selling them for $585 so they're keeping them affordable as well. (I think they were originally made in Taiwan so maybe they still are.)

I only have one bone to pick with them. They've kept the original bass drum pedal design with the pedal clamped to a bracket between the legs, centered beneath the bass drum. As any self-respecting cocktail drummer knows, you want to stand with the snare drum centered in front of you but that means you want the bass drum pedal under your right foot, not directly under the bass drum. This isn't a problem with the Yamaha Club Jordan design, since you stand behind the little snare drum, not the floor tom/bass drum, so the pedal is in the right place for the player. Once I realized this was a problem with the Manhattan, I got a DW Sidekick pedal that mounted to the right leg of the bass drum and voila! The pedal was right where I wanted it, with the snare centered in front of me.

I was actually moved to contact Trixon USA, using their Contact Us option, to let them know that they need to go the last 10% and come up with a pedal design that puts the pedal on the right-hand side of the bass drum. We'll see if I can make any headway with them.

Anyway, it's great to be back on the site again.